The dugout, pitcher's mound and batting cage on Wofford's Russell C. King field are surprisingly quiet this month. This year the baseball team, along with their chaperones and a few other Wofford students, is studying abroad in Italy during Interim, and they already have visited the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel, Pompeii and other sites to study the art, religion and culture of the Rome and Florence areas.

According to Amy Lancaster, Wofford's dean of international programs, Wofford is committed to providing students with a global learning experience, regardless of their field of study, socioeconomic background or athletics or co-curricular activities. Over the past three year, an average of 64 percent of Wofford students received academic credit for studying abroad at least once during their undergraduate experience. Since 2007, Wofford students have studied abroad in 70 countries on all seven continents.

The student-athletes on the Italy Interim return to campus on Thursday, Jan. 21, but not before taking in an AS Roma soccer game and experiencing day trips to Bologna and Venice.

Dr. Jim Neighbors, associate professor of English, led the trip along with Wofford baseball coaches.

"It's important to Wofford that our student-athletes have the opportunity to travel and study abroad during their college experience," says Brent Williamson, the college’s associate athletics director for sports information, who also went with the team to Italy. "It's who we are as a college."